At today’s general audience in the Vatican, there were no worshippers, and the pope and bishops sat farther apart than usual. That was the situation in Italy. Meanwhile, in Poland, the bishops are encouraging people to attend church, even though they themselves are postponing their meeting.
“It is impossible to imagine that we would not pray in our churches,” says Fr. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik, spokesperson for the Polish Bishops’ Conference. At the same time, he adds: “Due to the current situation concerning coronavirus in Poland, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki has postponed the Plenary Meeting of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, which was to take place on March 12–13, until a later date.”
So why does the Polish Bishops’ Conference encourage people to attend church while postponing its own meetings? The spokesperson does not explain this.
Can you catch coronavirus in a church?
It is possible. When entering a church, you have to open the door, usually by grasping the handle. Coronavirus may be present there if someone infected touched it earlier. During Sunday Masses, people are usually close to one another. If someone infected coughs on us, we may become infected. If someone infected touched the pews and we later touch the same places, we may become infected. The virus can survive on various objects for up to several days. Infection can also occur if a priest, altar server or extraordinary minister touched the hosts or communion plate while being ill. In Czapurach near Poznań, a minister from the local parish is in quarantine. He served at Sunday Mass without knowing that his wife carried the coronavirus and was ill. If it turns out that he was also infected, the parish priest will also undergo quarantine.
What is it like in Bolesławiec?
Today we visited the church on Jana Pawła II Street in Bolesławiec. There were as many people at the 6:00 p.m. Mass as usual. A photo from this Mass illustrates this article. In some churches, Communion is still given directly into the mouth, which is dangerous. Even if the priest or minister is healthy, it is enough for them to touch the mouth of an infected person with their fingers while distributing Communion and potentially pass the virus to other worshippers.